Forever Ago
by Plural Force
Summary: What does it mean to live forever? Several thousand years after Dragon Knights takes place, one man still remains, cursed to live but not to die. The irony. This is the story of a lone Dragon Knight and Lord. This is the story of Rath Illuser. Oneshot.


So, this is another little one-shot from me... yeah, this is what you get when I'm sitting on my butt for a good two hours listening to four adults around me chattering-- and let's not forget that all of these adults have had something to drink. Yeah, you'd be surprised what my mind can come up with in the face of utter boredom. Anyway, so from the idea of Rath being immortal, this little fanfic was born. Nothing really all that special, just an insightful little fic. I rather like it. So, hope you enjoy, and don't forget to review :D

EDIT: 5-7-06: Gah, well, this is what I get for writing half of this thing at one in the morning. I went through and corrected a few stupid mistakes I found, as well as adding more author's notes I forgot. First of all, I have no idea where the name Kazuki came from... it just sorta popped into my head and I couldn't help using it. And I still don't truly know what Rath means with his "Thank you" at the end-- I'm leaving it up to the reader to decide. So, enjoy. And review, it makes me happy and makes me write more.

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Knights.

_What does it mean... to live forever?_

_When you close your eyes and think to yourself..._

_Is that what you really want?_

_Do you really want to live for all eternity?_

_The mind cannot comprehend it._

_Eternity is a very long time._

Forever Ago

He was sitting at a desk. At a school. Another one. Just another desk at another school. Only one out of the several hundred he'd been to.

It was official; Rath had way too much time on his hands. Anyone who would willingly attend school several hundred times over had _way_ too much time on their hands.

But, of course, it could be said that Rath had more time on his hands than anyone else alive.

No one quite knew when it had started, or what had caused it. No one was sure whether it was his spiritual ties to Nadil, or perhaps a spell cast on him by some demon in the army. Members of the Dragon Tribe aged very slowly, so it may have been happening for years without anyone's noticing. All Rath could remember was that suddenly Cesia looked a lot older than him, and their son had grown up. As he watched everyone else around him slowly grow old and die, he didn't age a bit. His fellow knights, his wife, his son, his grandson... and before he knew it, life had moved on without him.

Nobody knew quite how, but somewhere along the line, Rath had become immortal.

He knew that Dragons lived a long time, but this was just ridiculous.

After several hundred years he was sick of it. Sick of ruling, sick of the palace, sick of every damn thing around him. Everything in that castle reminded him of them, of his friends and family who had died long ago and left him behind. As if that weren't enough, there were too many memories of his terrible past embedded in these walls. He had to get out of there.

_"I don't... want to stay here anymore."_

And so he left.

Not before making sure that his name was erased from all of Dusis's history records, though.

He didn't want to be noticed, to be famous, to be known as the Dragon Lord who had never died. He scoured the library and scratched out every name, tore out every picture, burned every portrait. The man was going to erase all memory of himself or die trying-- no pun intended.

He left. The man slipped into hiding and headed to Arinas-- the deserted continent. What better place to hide than a place with no people in it? At least there would be plenty of demons to kill.

As the years went by, people started to talk about him less and less. "Where could Lord Illuser have gone! I hear he went missing!" became "Hey, what ever happened to that old Dragon Lord?" which, in turn, eventually became "What? The Dragon Lord? Legend has it he disappeared several hundred years ago... hey, what was his name, again?"

And as life moved on, the tormented lord slowly passed into legend. Soon, the man known as Rath Illuser was forgotten.

Good. He liked it that way.

After a few hundred years, when he was sure he would not be noticed, Rath returned to Dusis. Found a place to stay. Lived a normal life. Well... almost normal. When you're immortal it's hard to live a very "normal" life.

He stayed that way for several thousand years. Every once in a while he would enroll in one of the various schools-- if only to see what they were teaching kids these days. As he watched, from the depths of time there was born technology-- cars, airplanes, television, computers, you name it. Dusis was thriving. Rath could never really get used to all the new gadgets these days, having grown up in a time where the only real technology was light and running water.

And so he lived. He lived on, lived a half-dead life, only living because he could not die.

And now, here he was, in another desk at another school. Again.

He was only doing this out of boredom, really.

"Illuser!"

"...Hm?" Rath looked up sleepily, his head propped up in one hand. He must have zoned out again without realizing it.

"Are you paying any attention, Illuser?" The teacher eyed him warily.

Rath straightened up in his chair, brushed his dark red hair out of his bloodred eyes, and looked the man straight in the eye. "No, sir, I'm not."

The class laughed. The teacher glared. "I will not tolerate any cheek from you, Illuser. See me after class."

"Hey!" _BAM._

A disturbance in the middle of the classroom. Rath looked over his shoulder. A boy, with black hair and dark eyes framed by oval-shaped glasses, was standing with his hands on his desk, as if he had just slammed them down. Which he probably had, Rath mused.

"That's not fair!" the boy argued. Rath faintly recognized him. Kazuki, a boy in a few of his classes this year.

"Rath didn't do anything wrong! He was just telling the truth!" Kazuki continued, as Rath continued to look over him.

"..." The teacher looked back and forth between the two of them, from Kazuki angrily standing in the middle of the room, to Rath, still seated and calmly observing the former.

"...Very well," the teacher consented, sighing. "Illuser, you're dismissed. Just go right home after this. But," he added, "if this happens again, it won't be pretty."

Rath nodded, showing he understood. Frankly, he didn't give a damn. It didn't really matter if he passed or failed-- that was just a measure of how hard he was trying. He probably knew more about the world than any of the other _children_ in this room combined.

Barely minutes later, the bell rang. Students swarmed out of their classrooms like bees from many different hives. Some were greeting others, talking animatedly. Rath sighed and started home alone, as he usually did.

"Rath!"

A familiar voice, calling him. Footsteps, running up from behind. Rath turned around. It was Kazuki, the boy who had spoken up in class earlier. He ran up to Rath and fell into step beside him.

"So, um, what's up?" the boy began. "I just wanted to... I mean, um..."

Rath smiled faintly. "It was nice of you to defend me like that earlier."

"Oh!" Kazuki looked slightly surprised. "It was nothing, really, I was just stating my opinion..."

But the immortal continued to smile knowingly, looking out ahead of him as he spoke. "But it was still nice." He turned his head toward Kazuki slightly. "Why don't we go find a bench or something to sit on, it'll be easier to talk there."

"Oh! Um... sure."

The two walked to a nearby park, which consisted of nothing but grass, benches, and flowering _sakura_ trees. The place was totally deserted save for the two of them.

They talked. They sat and talked for hours-- about everything from school to butterflies to evil plushies. As they talked, each of them couldn't help thinking that they had gained a new friend.

"It's so nice, sitting here underneath the trees like this," Rath remarked lazily. "No one to bother us, no distractions, just... nothing."

"Yeah..." Kazuki replied, smiling. "I guess it is nice."

Rath sighed, leaning forward with his his head propped up against his palms. "When you've lived as long as I have, you really start to take things for granted. There's not much to say about more pretty scenery. It's really sort of a shame, the way things just kind of die off like that..."

"...Lived as long as you have...?" Kazuki repeated, confused. "But... you're only about my age, aren't you..."

Rath smiled faintly, looking out at the scenery. "Ah, to be young again... Kazuki," he sighed, leaning back against the bench, "I am not... all that I seem."

"You're not...? I don't understand," Kazuki began, "aren't you... I mean, you're not..."

Rath just laughed. "So young and innocent... Kazuki, I am a very old man." As the black-haired boy stared at him, Rath continued, "I have become... you could say, immortal..."

"Immortal...?" Kazuki gasped. "But... what... how did you...?"

"I don't know," Rath replied truthfully. "But somewhere along the way, my wife... my son, my grandson... all dead before me..."

Kazuki gasped again. "You had a wife...? Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry... that is, I..."

Rath laughed slightly, raising up a hand to signal him to stop. "It's okay, it's nothing, it happened a long time ago..."

"That doesn't matter!" Kazuki yelled. "It doesn't matter how long it's been, you can never really forget the ones you love!" He had a rather urgent look on his face now, tears in his eyes.

Rath smiled wearily, touched by the boy's words. "...Thank you, Kazuki..."

"Thank... For what?" Kazuki looked at him, confused. "I didn't do anything..."

Rath just kept on smiling. "Like I said, I am a very old man... Kazuki, I'm several thousand years old..." Ignoring the other boy's look of startled revelation, he continued, "My time is coming. I can feel it. I'm weary, and I can feel it in my bones. Nothing can truly live forever... It's amazing that I've lasted this long. Thank you... for just talking to me... for understanding... for... just... being here for a while..."

Rath stood up from the creaky old bench, stretching and opening his arms wide, as if to embrace the oncoming wind. "There are some things that just can't be helped... I have to go now, Kazuki... I hope you can understand..." He smiled over his shoulder at the other. "It's... kind of like... when a child wears out its favorite toy," he continued, closing his eyes and facing the wind. "As the years pass, the toy becomes old and worn... and no matter how many times the child tries to repair it, it always keeps falling apart... until one day... it just completely wears itself out... Kazuki." Rath looked back over his shoulder once more. "I want you to promise me something." At the wide-eyed boy's acknowledging nod, Rath continued. "I want you to promise me that, no matter what happens, you will never wish to live forever. Promise me that you will never put yourself through what I have been through. To live for all eternity... After all..." he continued, smiling wistfully, "...Eternity is a very long time."

As he spoke these last words, the wind began to blow through his fingertips. Breaking apart, breaking down; gradually, the man's body dissolved into flower petals, into _sakura_ petals that matched the trees above.

Kazuki reached up into the wind and let the petals blow through his fingertips. "...I promise," he whispered, a single tear running down his cheek.

As he gazed up at the flower petals and the infinitely blue sky, Kazuki thought he could hear two final words being spoken.

_"...Thank you..."_

-Owari-

-End-


End file.
